Technology
What does AI education look like around the world?
In this episode, educators from Kenya, Malaysia, and Lithuania discuss the current state of AI literacy and the challenges faced in integrating AI education across various subjects. They explore the i...
What does AI education look like around the world?
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hello world and welcome to the podcast for educators passionate about computing and digital making.
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I'm James Robinson from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the makers of the Hello World magazine,
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and today we're bringing you a conversation about AI literacy around the world.
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As we all know, AI is evolving fast, and there is a risk that a skills gap could grow with it.
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Here at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we're working to help close that gap through experience AI,
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our free AI literacy program designed to help all teachers,
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whether or not we have a computing background, confidently bring AI concepts to life for their
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students, preparing them to enter a rapidly changing workforce. In this episode, my colleague here
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at the Foundation Ben Garcide speaks with three guests from our global experience AI partner network.
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Leighany Desoi, Learning Manager at the Raspberry Pi Foundation Kenya,
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Amy Lee, COO of Pennang Science Cluster in Malaysia, and Monica Kakute Gelshinare,
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CEO of Vedley in Lithuania. Representing not just three different countries, but three different
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continents, they discuss the current state of AI literacy in their countries, the challenges
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educators face, and the power and practical cavities of integrating AI and computer science into
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other subjects, from geography to history to literature. For more on how to forge these
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cross-curricular links, do read the most recent issue of the Hello World magazine, which focuses on
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this topic of integrated CS, just head to helloworld.cc to subscribe and read the digital version.
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Enough from me, I would say Ben and his guest to discuss what AI education looks like around the world.
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Let's get straight into it. So Leighany, your joining us all the way from Kenya, so welcome.
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How would you describe the current state of AI literacy in Kenya, especially to young people and
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educators? Yeah, there is an excitement about AI literacy, both from the learners and from the
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teachers. And one thing is also the government is coming in. We launched an AI strategy for 2025 to
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2030. So it's a sort of a scramble, everybody want to see where they are and the education sector is
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going in. And when you talk to teachers, they are now getting positive and interested on how they
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can come in. And also the stakeholders now are seeing the positive way of how they can involve it
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in education. However, one thing to look into is we still have low digital literacy as much as
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we are bringing in AI. If it is not bundled up together with digital literacy, there is also
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misuse from both the learners and also the educators. So much is the foundational knowledge is needed
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before maybe taking it up in Kenya, but everybody is excited.
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Mars, thank you. Manika, what's the situation looking like in Lithuania?
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So I guess it's quite similar as everywhere, as in terms of the word AI started being loud
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only a few years ago with all the changes with you know open models and AI agents. But we've been
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teaching AI for the last five years. So I guess I still have a lot of opportunity in it, but a lot of
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also challenges not to get teachers you know overburdened with the noise and changes and because they
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cannot follow all the new things that are coming up with the AI. And as Loneida was saying, it's also
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about you know we expect students and teachers suddenly become professionally eye users without
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having the foundations in digital literacy. And some teachers will frog leap from no digital
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literacy to AI literacy straight, which is a very interesting experience and experiment to see.
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So I just see those two layers. One is AI becoming the official part of computer science curriculum
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that is kind of formal education in schools. So that's where experience AI is a gift to Lithuanian
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teachers. But the second layer that is really missing on the national level is how do we help
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teachers go through the filter of AI in terms of you know quality of pedagogy and kind of efficiency
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relevancy of their skills and ideas that they can come to the classroom and feel that they're
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actually delivering something relevant in the 21st century classroom. It's really interesting
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that you've been delivering AI literacy for such a long time because I think in the past five
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years the difference in AI technology has grown vastly. So five years ago we didn't have things like
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large language models or genitive AI. So do you think that's been a hindrance or
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or maybe an opportunity that's maybe more people and I'll talk to you about AI? Is that maybe
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people more hesitant to get into AI education or do you think it's made them actually want to know more?
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So that's a very interesting part for me to watch and how trends come and go and all the
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and I guess a lot of teachers resistance globally also comes from this unsensitivity to how
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pedagogy actually works in the classroom. So it's not like you throw things at kids. You need to
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understand them, be comfortable with them and start playing and working in the classroom and
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it has to be meaningful for your work. And usually a lot of AI tools are not thoughtful enough to
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translate it into the school language that would be appropriate for the age of kids because it's
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hard work and we're rarely a technology company wants to do it. Amy your joining us from
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Tanang, emolation. So welcome. How would you describe the current state of AI
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literacy emolation especially to teachers and young people? The general awareness of AI is
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growing in a moment because of how AI is more prevalent in the news and social media and so on
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so forth. But have you said that AI ethics AI literacy responsible use of AI is still not
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done yet at the moment at this point mostly surface level understanding deeper understanding is
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somewhat limited. It's going to be fine. So Amy what do you say is the biggest obstacles you know for
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example is it devices policies confidence or is it something else? I think at this point because AI
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literacy education is not hard enough to form curriculum so that's still limited adoption of
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delivering the contact. So that's one. The other thing is teacher readiness in delivering AI
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lessons and also finally a lot of teachers are burdened with a lot of things that they have to
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deliver in school. So right now how they're implementing it is they take any additional time that
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they have or are like getting students to stay back after school to deliver the AI lessons actually
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so it's quite impressive that they do step to step to. Well I think it's interesting as these
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similarities and differences between the different countries. I think in the UK we're in a similar
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situation to you. Amy it's not currently in the curriculum. We're seeing some positive signs
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that we're currently going through a curriculum reform and AI literacy starts to be mentioned so
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we've got our fingers crossed that it's going to become a priority so I think with that it releases
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time for teachers to be trained you know and which is something that teachers are short on in
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its time particularly in a busy curriculum so I'm hoping that it will appear and then we can
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dedicate more time to supporting teachers in their journey to bring AI literacy education to
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young people. I think there's a danger that teaching AI literacy becomes a remit of computer
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science teachers or technology teachers. How important do you think it is to integrate AI
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literacy concepts into other subjects areas? So we need a UNI spent a bit of time in Kenya and
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we saw a really good example of AI literacy being used in a different subject area. Would you
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let's talk about that? Yeah truly I think it's time that AI literacy is looked at a broader view
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not just in computing and what the learners are looking at is an eye through AI in all areas and in
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all the challenges they're having so that it is not stuck and seen as just an entity in computing
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but something that cuts across all the learning areas and also all career areas for our learners as
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they go to the upper areas. Yeah absolutely agree. AI shouldn't sit in isolation. That kind of reflects
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a real world actually. I mean we encounter AI day-to-day and not just in computer science, not just
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in coding and not in programming. Manika what are your thoughts on this from your perspective from
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Lithuania? Yeah I guess it's I see just that we have those two different pathways. AI
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literacy is something similar to digital skills so it's like a basic skills like reading that's
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crosses over all other subjects or and there's the other part where AI becomes a building field you
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know where you learn a more difficult complex things like you know machine learning etc and you
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know models. I feel like entire education system needs to go through AI filter and come out of it
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with a bit more efficiency with a bit more understanding so it lives in a 21st century AI world
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and I see AI as a form of you know building and also as a coworker for everyone in the future.
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Yeah I like that idea of a coworker a lot. I mean I think I worry that young people might fail
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disenfranchised or disempowered by this idea that AI might be replacing them so I think given
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the agency and I'm seeing as a coworker or a problem solving tool and I don't think we can achieve
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that in just one subject area I think if if it's been dotted around in different in a subject
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whether that be science or art or mathematics they can see the applicability of this tool to support
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them in their futures. So Lee need a question to you wherever you see an AI being delivered in
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cross-curricular kind of way. Yeah we have religious education kids from Nakuru County in Kenya
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they did an activity modeling how you can identify the books in the Bible and these are young kids
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they are being introduced to digital literacy and the little knowledge they get in experience AI
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and you see how they are trying to integrate into other things that they are doing and it was
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quite impressive to see these learners. Yeah and I really like this idea of taking those skills
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that they've learned you know the concepts about you know AI literacy and applying it at a different
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subject areas so it was yeah yeah it was really nice to see okay so Amy so we're talking about AI
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literacy not being just for computer science what interest have you started to see from you know
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non-stem teachers in wanting to deliver AI literacy to our students or is it the opposite you feel
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like there's nervousness or hesitation. Definitely there's nervousness we have trained English teachers
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language-malley language teachers and also religious studies teachers in through experience AI as well
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initially they were nervous and after going through what they've gone through they are excited to
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apply it. I want to go through the training you feel like their confidence has built up and they can
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start applying their own subject knowledge to the problems that can be solved yeah. So they start to
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think about oh how is this related to my subject how can I integrate it so we don't actually
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explicitly teach that but they kind of arise at whatever they're doing on their own. Yeah that's
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very nice. Maybe too hard on it's quite exciting also in Kenya at first you'll find this non-computing
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teachers feeling the sense like this is not right for education but when they go through
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their foundation or courses and what is AI what can AI do. They get excited and see in their
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learning areas how can we integrate AI so it is more of awareness to this and training of non-computing
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teachers into it. Many kind of your earlier stage of your journey of training teachers on experience
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AI but having you know been involved in AI education for quite a long time what do you have any
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thoughts on you know how do you see STEM teachers or non-stam teachers sorry interacting with
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AI let's just say. I was really surprised to see that the first school world of experience AI
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teachers 50% of them were non-CS teachers because I was really prejudiced myself thinking that it
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would be mostly CS teachers but it's really 50-50 at the moment and it because to be honest all
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teachers are starting at the same point to all of them it's new it's a fundamental level it's like
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reading and understanding a new theory and non-CS teachers were actually saying that they finally
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understand AI what where it's coming from and I think from this better understanding they will
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feel more confident to actually think about it in the future. I think that's really important to
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recognise as well isn't it that you know it is as you say they knew for everybody even if your
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computer science teacher doesn't mean that you're trained in AI and know instantly how it works so
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it's quite refreshing to hear that's all coming from the same starting point doesn't matter what
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subject matter that is. It's interesting that AI is the the language that helps to bring other
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teachers into digital spaces. So since we have the three of you here together representing not
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just three countries but even three continents is there a digital divide in your country? Amy?
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Yes definitely so Malaysia has both rural areas as well as urban areas so definitely the digital
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divides in the access to devices as well as access to high speed internet connection but the other
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thing is also in terms of like chain teachers as well more teachers want to be in the urban areas
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compared to the rural areas and that does that exacerbate the digital development.
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So how does that impact you know the education that you're able to deliver in terms of you know
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digital skills or AI electricity? Like when you talk about AI we talk about even digital skills
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you do need the internet connection you do need devices so when you don't have enough or you don't
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have sufficient devices then this limited access right so the more better resource schools,
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better resource areas don't get more access but those with less resource and less chain teachers
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they have less measures. What's it look like in Lithuania? I think we're in a quite a privileged
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position in terms of having connectivity and I would say that we have less of a digital divide
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but bigger I still see a lot of divide in the quality of teaching depending on the area you live
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but with AI it's a totally different story because I see that AI divide is really really sharp
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because kids in urban areas and bigger cities especially if their parents work in
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iCT sector are picking up it so quickly and you know in the five years time when they're entering
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real world they have very different opportunities and they're very different fundamentals so I guess
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you know we can very quickly become AI divided rather than because we can have irrelevant digital skills.
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Yeah thank you and Leigh need a what's a lot like in Kenya? In Kenya it's similar with Amy we have
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in the rural areas there is a little limited access not only to internet access even access to
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this digital device and how do we support these in rural areas? Can we have a planned activity even
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for them to have an idea of what the world is doing what is out there? How can they interact with
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it so that we can bridge that gap and have an understanding in this young learners as they come in?
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So having this and planned activity is opening a mindset of our learners to create that curiosity
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to want to know AI to want to growing their computing skills as much as these lack of these resources.
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Sometimes it's also like kids or young people in rural areas because of like death surroundings they
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just don't think AI is all that important because they don't interact with it so then they don't
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keep out knowledge about it whereas in urban areas they see it they see everybody using it as they
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are a bit more curious about it. It's fascinating they're exposure to that in their daily lives
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that they don't see it then there's no kind of curiosity to want to explore it here. I think there's
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a danger that I've heard so many times that they think that AI could like democratize education
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and I think there's the potential there but you know for example teachers can use
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to create these lesson plans for them and give them that but ultimately you know we're seeing
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if they haven't got access to support you know maybe at home they've not got device at home
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compared to the ones that do or maybe even device in the classroom there is a separation
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being created. Yeah and it's changing so fast you know like the world economic forum is saying that
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by 2030 70 percent of job skills you need will be changed so it's going to happen in what
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five years it's a massive shift and it's not only that you're coming into a totally different
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job market so it's kind of a it's a it's a very past the process. Next question if you could
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look ahead and you would have the ability or power to make any big change to accelerate
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AI education in your country what would that be? Monica can I start with you please? Of course
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I already always have a vision. For me I guess it will be you know starting from kind of fundamentals
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of making sure teachers first experience the benefits of AI in their daily work as professionals
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and then we create a full curriculum starting from grade one to twelve and different curriculum for
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age groups so it's just the path that is always there so AI upscaling is not an event
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it's just a normal part of formal education your skill set is growing up with it.
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Amy can I ask the same question to you please? Yeah I think regardless of whether the teachers
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going to be teaching AI literacy to their students or not I feel like every teacher should be trained
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in AI literacy like they should know what are the impacts you know ethical use of AI and things
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like that so whether they are great at teaching other students or not at the same time too like we
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spoke about earlier or integrating AI into like all subjects my wish is for them to also be trained
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on that too so that they know how to implement that. Thank you and I would say you Leonida.
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I think fundamental literacy skills in AI for teachers and also how these teachers are going to
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implement is something that it should be for every educator in Kenya and as much as we are doing for
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every educator in Kenya is to see how it cuts across all the learning areas and not just computing
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because as much as it comes in in Kenya it's really segregated to be it's a computing concept
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so an idea of having it cutting across from the beginning so that we don't have a misconception.
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And finally if you're a teacher who wants to get involved in air-lapse education but maybe feels
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a little bit nervous or overwhelmed what advice would you give them to help them get started?
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Start small cover one topic at a time one concept at a time don't feel the need to cover everything
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all the same time. What do you think Leonida? You'd find also teachers those who are trained in
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experience AI can do a mentoring to others and community of practice where they can share amongst
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each other and where they can encourage others who will still feel they are not confident enough
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to get it into the classroom. I really like that idea that you know you're partnering with somebody
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to kind of learn together because this is new for all of us right so we are still learning what
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other right pedagogies when it comes to AI so I really love this idea of community.
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You know it's not just you know others as partners working together and building a community of AI
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trainers and resource creators but also the teachers creating their own community to support each
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other on that journey of bringing electricity because I think we all learn a lot from each other
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and as I said earlier all the stars of this journey together so hopefully you know people
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teachers can build that community of practice and kind of build each other's confidence and knowledge
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at the same time. I'm actually leaving these two words community of practice because it's
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the first time I hear them and use them in kind of a in this setting so it's something new that's
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coming to my you know field of thinking so very grateful. So thank you so much for joining me for
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this chat I found it super interesting and particularly you've traveled such a long way to be
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with us your perspectives are really valuable so thank you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that
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conversation we'd love to hear your thoughts what barriers to AI education do you see in your
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classroom community or country who's being left out and what do you think could help them feel
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included engaged and empowered. Drop us an email at podcastahelloworld.cc we'd really love to
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hear from you there's more about our experience AI program in the latest edition of the Hello World
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magazine head to helloworld.cc to subscribe read the digital version and if you're in the UK
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request a free print copy delivered straight to your door that brings us to the end of our
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current podcast series we hope that you've enjoyed watching it as much as we've enjoyed creating it.
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If you'd like more practical tips for teaching computing and digital making we've got a whole
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back catalog of episodes just search helloworld podcast on youtube and click subscribe so you don't
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miss any future episodes thanks so much for watching goodbye.